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LEARNING.CG
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1990-05-08
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LEARNING CORRECT GRAMMAR (TM) 2.1
A Self Instruction Document
Welcome to Correct Grammar 2.1. This document teaches you the
basics of using Correct Grammar.
Use the Down Arrow key when you need to scroll down to see more
text. To stop Correct Grammar, just press the Escape key.
PLEASE NOTE: This document has intentional grammatical errors in
its text, to illustrate how the program works.
To tell Correct Grammar what you want to do, press a Function key
or type the letter or number you select from the menu. The menu
shows all available options, and you can always press Help.
IMPORTANT NOTE: WHEN CORRECT GRAMMAR STOPS ON AN ERROR, PLEASE
BE SURE TO READ EVERYTHING ON THE SCREEN BEFORE YOU CORRECT THE
ERROR. ONCE YOU FIX THE ERROR, CORRECT GRAMMAR WILL START AGAIN,
AND THE TEXT MAY SCROLL OFF YOUR SCREEN BEFORE YOU CAN READ IT.
Correcting Grammar
Move the cursor to the first word of the sample sentence below
and press F2, the Grammar function key. When Correct Grammar
stops, keep reading!
The club provides parking for it's members.
Correct Grammar displays a specific suggestion. If you are not
sure why you should follow it, choose the Tutorial option.
The menu offers option C (Change or Correct), when Correct
Grammar knows exactly what is wrong. Type a C and watch as we
fix the error instantly!
Will John or me be hired?
Correct Grammar suggests that you consider using "I" in this
sentence. If you are not sure why, try the Tutorial option
again. Again, choosing C will fix it.
The delegates conference started early.
In this case, selecting C will give you two suggestions, and you
choose between them by typing the number.
When you prefer to rewrite the sentence, use the Edit option.
After any change, Correct Grammar always checks your sentence
again, so if you make another mistake you'll know about it right
away.
While editing, you can use Home to go to the start of a line, or
End to go to the end of the line. You can also press the Ins key
to switch between Insert and Replace typing modes.
Can you spell washington?
Correct Grammar knows just the right thing to do on the sentence
above, and Change will fix the capitalization of Washington.
Some words that Correct Grammar doesn't recognize are proper
nouns, such as Michelangelo. Correct Grammar will tell you that
the word is not in its dictionary. Just select Add to include
the word in your personal dictionary. Correct Grammar will ask
if you want the word always capitalized. If you reply Y, Correct
Grammar will flag michelangelo as a capitalization error in the
future.
When Correct Grammar Makes a Misteak
From time to time, even Correct Grammar gets confused. The
Ignore option lets you go on to the next problem.
Ignore has another use, too. When a sentence has multiple
problems, Correct Grammar may offer a poor suggestion first.
Just ignore it and go on to the next one:
The documents belonging to the committee is old.
Are You Readable?
Correct Grammar 2.1 is the only program of its kind that notifies
you about each sentence that is too long or too hard to read.
Here's one:
The committee sent the new report to its subcommittee on
regional affairs for review and possible amendment to include the
new information regarding the loss of wetlands along the central
and southern coastal plains.
That sentence violates the standard for sentence length, as the first
message tells you. If you Skip or Ignore that message, you see another
one telling you that it is hard to read. Correct Grammar has flagged
the sentence so you can edit it immediately. Both the maximum sentence
length and the target grade level can be set in the Readability Maximums
section of the Rules Menu.
Correct Grammar also reports on the readability of the whole document.
At the end of this document, you will see our analysis.
The Passive Voice
Overuse of the passive voice can weaken a document. The passive
voice looks like this:
The meeting was postponed by the chairman.
Correct Grammar stops on the sentence and asks you to consider
rewriting in the active voice. You can use the Edit option to do
so. In the active voice, the sentence would read:
The chairman postponed the meeting.
Rules and Preferences
Because you are the ultimate judge of your writing, Correct
Grammar lets you turn most of its rules of analysis on and off.
You can elect to ignore the spelling of all capitalized words.
Press the keys QRRT at the menu to select Quiet, Rules, Rule off,
This session only. This will let you see the Rules Menu and turn
off the rule that checks capitalized words for proper spelling,
for this session only. Explore the Rules option, and use the
Help key liberally. When you have finished, come back here and
read on.
The numbered items you saw on the screen are Rule Classes, each
of which contains one or more Rules. When Correct Grammar makes
a suggestion, it is applying a Rule in evaluating your sentence.
You can turn off an individual Rule so that Correct Grammar no
longer flags that very specific situation, or you can turn an
entire Class of Rules on or off. And, for a detailed
explanation, see the Rules chapter in the manual.
If you turn a rule off for the current session only, it will turn
on again automatically the next time you use Correct Grammar. If
you turn a rule off permanently by Updating the Style Guide, use
the Class On option to turn it on again.
To Modify the Rules
Correct Grammar allows you to quickly and easily modify the Rule
Classes. Classes 20 through 24 are the Readability Maximums,
which let you specify your preference as a value.
Rule Class 24 is the grade level of writing you want as your
target. Usually 8th grade level has a wide audience, but you can
set a different standard if you prefer. This value determines
when you see the message that your sentence requires a high grade
level.
Rule Class 20, is the number of words allowed between the "to"
and the verb of a split infinitive. Correct Grammar initially
allows no words between "to" and the verb. If you want a less
strict standard, type 1 or 2 for this value. You can also allow
any number of words between "to" and the verb by selecting Class
Off.
Similarly, Correct Grammar will detect long strings of nouns, as
in food product delivery schedule. Here is an example of too
many prepositional phrases in a sentence for the purpose of
demonstration of a certain kind of problem. You can fine tune
both of these numbers.
And, to turn off spelling altogether, turn off the Spelling
classes.
Conclusion
For more examples of the power of Correct Grammar, type DEMO at
the DOS prompt.
Try Correct Grammar on your own documents. Please use real
documents; Correct Grammar will not perform accurately on made-up
test cases with many errors in a sentence.
We appreciate your valuable and considerate suggestions for
enhancing this product. Please address them to:
Camilo Wilson,
Chairman
Lifetree Software
33 New Montgomery
San Francisco, CA 94105
FAX 1 415 541 7850
DO NOT STORE THIS TUTORIAL IF YOU HAVE CHANGED IT. To exit,
press F10, then choose N and Y; don't forget to look over the
Readability Report.